HUMZA Yousaf hit out at racial slurs graffitied over a mural dedicated to the world’s first black international footballer as he unveiled the SNP’s minorities manifesto.

The painting, covering the outside wall of Jodandy’s cafe in Shawlands, Glasgow, pays tribute to Andrew Watson, who led a team from the city to victory in the 1800s with multiple Scottish Cup wins.

Watson played three matches for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. Another black person wouldn’t be selected to play at international level for the country for another 120 years.

However, the mural had been defaced with slurs including “FK BLM/ANTIFA Nazis” and “die scum”.

The Justice Secretary described the vandalism as a “real shame” and called for other parties to unite in stamping out racism.

It comes as Yousaf introduced the SNP’s minorities manifesto, where they commit to erasing structural and institutional barriers that hold people back.

Speaking at the site of the mural, Yousaf said: “It’s shameful, really shameful that in this day and age in Scotland, in a really multicultural part of the city here in Glasgow’s south side, that the mural there to contribute to the first ever black football player who had played at international level has been defaced in such a way with racial slurs, with the scoring out of Black Lives Matters, reference to the Nazis, what a real shame.

“It absolutely highlights why the SNP is committed in our manifesto that we will do whatever we can to stamp out racism and hatred in all forms, whether it’s overt as we’ve seen on this mural or whether it’s more structural in terms of workplace and so on and so forth.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, and although I’m talking about the SNP bringing that forward, I hope that’s something that every party can unite on.”

The SNP have said they want Scotland to be a “world leader” in tackling institutional and structural barriers that hold minorities back in settings such as education, justice, work, and the public sector.

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One of the key policies is introducing an educational module on Scotland’s history of its colonial past and place in the slave trade.

They also hope the online programme will be taught in schools.

Asked why it’s important that children and young people are taught about Scotland’s past, including the bad parts of our history, Yousaf said: “I think the Black Lives Matter movement was a really seminal moment in all of our consciousness.

“Although the events that sparked the movement happened thousands of miles away, clearly it made us all hold up a mirror to ourselves and confront the realities about whether we do enough to tackle racism.

“It’s easier for us all to unite and say, ‘I oppose racism’, but do we do enough to understand our own history when it comes to racism and structural barriers, and Scotland’s role in the slave trade? I don’t think we do.

“When I was in school, we weren’t taught about it, but I was born and raised in Glasgow, and went to school in Glasgow, and Glasgow was the second city of the empire – walk anywhere in Glasgow and you see remnants of our historical slave trade and we can’t just sweep that under the carpet.

“We’ll work with a number of experts in this field, we’ll create a module that can be taught in schools to shine a light on Scotland’s past and colonial past.

“We should rightly celebrate the good things that we did but we shouldn’t ignore or sweep under the carpet the very troubling parts of our history.”

The Justice Secretary is also taking part in Ramadan during the campaign, a fasting month in the Muslim calendar, and told how it has been a “bit trickier” on the campaign trail.

He said: “It’s been tough, I won’t lie, it’s quite tiring because you’ve got to get up at about quarter past three in the morning, drink a lot of water, try and eat as best as you can at that time.

“You just get on with it, it’s something that I choose to do, and if nothing else it will help me shift a little bit of lockdown weight frankly that I’ve put on over the last year.”